- That we don’t get along is water under the bridge – Saleshando
- Our emotional blind spots were overcome – Boko
MPHO MATSHEDISO
“There will be another story to tell,” UDC vice president Dumelang Saleshando told journalists in Gaborone on Monday this week. “The story is that the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) president Duma Boko and I do not get along is water under the bridge.
”Speaking at a media briefing, Saleshando – who is also the president of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) – said the UDC came out stronger after a meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) that was held in Palapye over the weekend. “We have agreed that we will (use) the right channels of solving our differences,” he asserted. “One of the objectives of our next NEC meeting, which is scheduled to take place on the 7th of August, is to address ways in which we will solve our differences, if we have any, in the future. Every organization has that.”
UDC president Duma Boko said much the same, noting that the UDC is a creature of social resilience and political inventiveness. Speaking at the same media briefing, Boko expressed confidence in the capabilities of the coalition movement to transform Botswana. “A key summary of the resolutions from our meeting in Palapye are that stern measures will be taken against anyone who breaches the expected standards of behaviour of the UDC,” he said. “All leaders and members of the UDC shall cease from all conduct and utterances that tarnish the name of the organization and the UDC will hold a team-building retreat on the 7th of August 2021. This retreat will be led by UDC vice president Dumelang Saleshando together with secretary generals of UDC member parties.”
The UDC came under scrutiny recently when Saleshan-do and other leaders of the BCP snubbed a UDC press conference that was addressed by Boko, citing lack of consultation within the UDC. The BCP president told journalists then that he and Boko had not spoken with each other in over six months.
Boko, who is also president of the Botswana National Front (BNF), on Monday said he was relieved and gratified that the Palapye meeting had gone in the manner that it did. “Palapye did not turn out to be the ill omen that it could have become,” he emphasized.
Meanwhile, the constitution is reportedly being re-viewed without participation of fraternal opposition parties outside the coalition, namely the Alliance for Progressives (AP) and the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF).